Goodbye, Homeschooling; Hello, Unschooling

Out of 56 million school-age children, 1.5 million are homeschooled and at least 100,000 are believed to be unschooled. According to ABC News, unschooling is an "unorthodox approach to homeschooling that does not focus on formal classes, set curriculum or tests." In other words, it's a homeschooling system that lets kids choose their own interests; if they want to know something, they'll figure it out for themselves.

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The radical method of school and parenting is expectedly controversial; when the story broke on ABC yesterday, their message boards lit up with comments from concerned viewers. But the educational movement, if you will, is an acknowledged practice. (Homeschooling rules vary from state to state; in Massachusetts, unschooling parents are required to report to local school authorities once a year.)

This morning, Christine Yablonski and Phil Biegler, a couple who supports and uses the teaching method with their two children, appeared on Good Morning America to defend the system. Here's an excerpt from the show: "There's a huge difference between having no rules and having arbitrary rules," Yablonski said. "We live in a world of principles. The principles of trust, honesty and respect. That's how we make all of our decisions. It's not anything goes. We are instilling proper values, good values in our children."

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Psychiatrists feel that the system puts too much power in the hands of the kids, but the parents think that the reason unschooled kids are successful is because "they will do what they need to do, whether or not they enjoy it, because they see the purpose in it."

When questioned about how their children would get into a college by a woman who commented on the GMA Facebook page, the parents said that unschooling has been in existence for a while, and that there are already kids out there who were unschooled and now in college or raising families successfully.

Watch the clip from Good Morning America, and tell us: What do you think about unschooling?